Saturday, April 1, 2017

Violence In Iraq, March 22-28, 2017

Violence stayed at relatively the same level between the
third and fourth week of March. There were 152 reported incidents in Iraq from
March 22-28. That was roughly the same as the previous week when there were
142.

Again, Ninewa led the country in violence with 100 incidents
due to the Battle for Mosul. After that there were 21 in Baghdad, 10 in Diyala,
8 in Anbar, 6 in Kirkuk, 5 in Salahaddin, and 1 each in Babil and Najaf.

There were 1,195 deaths reported and 575 wounded during the
week. 6 Hashd al-Shaabi, 15 members of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and
1,174 civilians died and 5 Hashd, 32 ISF, and 538 civilians were injured.

Ninewa led the country with 1,145 fatalities. There were
than 15 in Anbar, 11 in Baghdad, 10 in Salahaddin, 7 each in Diyala and Kirkuk.

There was a slight increase in casualties in Anbar from the
4th to 3rd week of March because of air strikes. The
Iraqi forces were blamed for two air attacks in western Iraq that killed 10
civilians and wounded 20 total. Almost all of the other attacks took place in
the corridor from Ramadi to Fallujah. The Islamic State still holds the western
section of the province so there are usually incidents there. The insurgents
have re-infiltrated into the center of the province, and regularly attack the
main towns and cities in that area.

Incidents in Baghdad continue to plummet. For almost two
months now the number of reported attacks in the province has dropped. Since
the third week of February the number of incidents has gone down each week from
42 from February 15-21, to 36 February 22-28, to 34 March 1-7, to 31 March
8-14, to 29 March 15-21, to 21 March 22-28. Those are the lowest numbers seen
in the capital for years. Usually casualties have stayed at a steady pace, but
those took a huge drop March 22-28 as well with just 11 killed and 45 wounded.
Again, those types of figures have not been seen for years.

Reported Security Incidents in Baghdad 2017

Week

Incidents

Jan 1-7

46

Jan 8-14

45

Jan 15-21

32

Jan 22-28

43

Feb 1-7

31

Feb 8-14

30

Feb 15-21

42

Feb 21-28

36

Mar 1-7

34

Mar 8-14

31

Mar 15-21

29

Mar 22-28

21

Security remained steady in Diyala, Salahaddin and Kirkuk.
There were just 10 incidents in Diyala with 7 dead and 1 wounded. 6 attacks in
Kirkuk with 7 fatalities and 9 injured. Finally in Salahaddin there were just 5
attacks, 10 deaths and 7 wounded. These are the three provinces where the
Islamic State either still holds territory are or rebuilding in the rural
areas. Despite that they are not that active in the governorates.

Ninewa was obviously the center of violence in Iraq because
of the on going campaign to liberate Mosul. There were 100 incidents leading to
1,145 deaths and 487 wounded. All but one of the casualties took place inside
the city. The Islamic State was accused of executing 90 people. Coalition air
strikes, topped off by the Jadida incident that might have taken the lives of
240 people, were blamed for a total of 326 deaths and 26 wounded. The Islamic
State was responsible for the vast majority of casualties because it is
constantly shelling areas in Mosul. Iraqi artillery and air strikes however are
also taking a toll. The huge rise in the dead and wounded from the battle for
the east side of the city to west is caused by a number of factors. First, the
Islamic State has changed its tactics. Where before it would kick people out of
their homes to use them as a fire position, they are now not only keeping
people in them, but forcing groups into buildings to try to deter attacks on
them by the Iraqis and Coalition. Second, the Coalition has made it much easier
to call in air strikes. The Iraqi forces are also using more air, helicopter,
mortar and artillery. Finally, Baghdad told the civilian population of Mosul to
stay in the city, because the authorities and aid groups did not have the
resources to take care of them if they left. This has been a huge misstep as
people first got in the way of the fighting, and are now being manipulated by
the insurgents. The result was that 1,132 civilians were reportedly killed and
487 wounded during the week. The real numbers are higher.

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com